Alyson Richman > Quotes

“He laughs. And in his laugh I hear bliss. I hear feet dancing, the rush of skirts twirling. The sound of children.
Is that the first sign of love?
You hear in the person you're destined to love the sound of those yet to be born.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“And I saw for the first time how, despite the isolation of our own lives, we are always connected to our ancestors; our bodies hold the memories of those who came before us, whether it is the features we inherit or a disposition that is etched into our soul.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“She always told us there were two types of women. Those who are lit from the outside and those who are lit from within. The first needs the shimmer of a diamond to maker her sparkle, but for the other, her beauty is illuminated through the sheer light of her soul.”
― Alyson Richman

“In my old age, I have come to believe that love is not a noun but a verb. An action. Like water, it flows to its own current. If you were to corner it in a dam, true love is so bountiful it would flow over. Even in separation, even in death, it moves and changes. It lives within memory, in the haunting of a touch, the transience of a smell, or the nuance of a sigh. It seeks to leave a trace like a fossil in the sand, a leaf burning into baking asphalt.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“If those we love visit us when we dream, those who torment us almost always visit us when we're still awake.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“There was also something about the smell of bookshops that was strangely comforting to her. She wondered if it was the scent of ink and paper, or the perfume of binding, string, and glue. Maybe it was the scent of knowledge. Information. Thoughts and ideas. Poetry and love. All of it bound into one perfect, calm place.”
― Alyson Richman, The Garden of Letters

“I had to teach myself that love was very much like a painting. The negative space between people was just as important as the positive space we occupy. The air between our resting bodies, and the breath in our conversations, were all like the white of the canvas, and the rest our relationship- the laughter and the memories- were the brushstroke applied over time.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“You hear in the person you're destined to love the sound of those yet to be born.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“To those who believe the dead do not visit them, I say you have cataracts in your soul. I am a man of science, yet I believe in guardian angels and the haunting by ghosts.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“The mind, the heart, the womb. Those three are all threaded in a sacred dance. A woman's pelvis is like an hourglass with the capacity to tell time. It both creates and shelters life. When a mother's diet in insufficient, nutrients are pulled from her own teeth and bone. Women are built to be selfless.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“We wore that grief like one wears one's underclothes. An invisible skin, unseen to prying eyes, but knitted to us all the same. We wore it every day.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“A woman who loves books has a dreamer's soul, with each story she has read woven into her own.”
― Alyson Richman, The Garden of Letters

“There are two sensations of skin you will always remember in your lifetime; the first time you fall in love-and that person holds your hand-and the first time your child grasps your finger. In each of those times, you are sealed to the other for eternity.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“You will never be lonely with a book at your side,”
― Alyson Richman, The Garden of Letters

“Your eyes are wide open. I feel as though I could step inside them and make myself at home.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“There are some things that a woman knows that she cannot tell even her family. It is part intuition and part self-preservation.”
― Alyson Richman, The Rhythm of Memory

“Perspective is a tool used far too infrequently. If people had the courage to alternate their lens every now and then, the world would be a far more beautiful place.”
― Alyson Richman, The Velvet Hours

“I told my daughter, the first time she fell in love, not to hold it too close. Think of yourself in a warm, summer pool, I told her, concentric circles rippling all around you. Golden beams of sunlight flooding your hair, striking your face. Inhale it. Breathe it. It will not leave you. If you place sunlight in your palms, it will turn to shadow. If you put fireflies in a jar, they will die. But if you love with wings on, you will always feel the exhilaration of being suspended in flight.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“He took a deep breath, as if he were taking the air from my own lungs and swallowing it for himself.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“one needn’t be born into a beautiful life in order to have one.”
― Alyson Richman, The Velvet Hours

“I know only one thing. One doesn’t abandon family. One doesn’t leave them, even in the name of love.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“You are too young to understand, solange, but there are many different types of love in this world. There are lovers of the flesh, lovers of the mind, and lovers sustained by family.:”
― Alyson Richman, The Velvet Hours

“I often wonder if it’s the curse of old age, to feel young in your heart while your body betrays you.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“In my old age, I have come to believe that love is not a noun but a verb. An action. Like water, it flows to it's own current.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“A woman’s pelvis is like an hourglass with the capacity to tell time. It both creates and shelters life. When the mother’s diet is insufficient, nutrients are pulled from her own teeth and bone. Women are built to be selfless.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“But in order to survive in this foreign world, I had to teach myself that love was very much like a painting. The negative space between people was just as important as the positive space we occupy.”
― Alyson Richman, The Lost Wife

“En mi vejez he llegado a creer que el amor no es un sustantivo, sino un verbo, una acción. Como el agua, fluye dentro de una corriente propia. Si uno intentara atraparlo en una presa, el amor verdadero es tan vasto que no se lo podría contener. Aun a pesar de la separación, aun a pesar de la muerte, se mueve y se transforma. Vive dentro de la memoria, en lo evocador de un roce, en la brevedad de un aroma, en los matices de un suspiro. Busca dejar un rastro como un fósil en la arena, como una hoja que queda atrapada en asfalto caliente.”
― Alyson Richman, Los amantes de Praga

“Are you the man that says nothing or the man that acts upon his beliefs?”
― Alyson Richman, The Thread Collectors

“Without the fingerprint of the heart, it would only be sound... not music.”
― Alyson Richman, The Thread Collectors

“Nos sonreímos el uno al otro, como si ambos supiéramos algo que ninguno de los dos tenía el valor de decir.”
― Alyson Richman, Los amantes de Praga